My family has a hereditary passion for desserts. When I was growing up, this was particularly evident with the plethora of candy, cookies and cake that was always in the house. East coasters might remember the melt-in-your-mouth dream of the partially hydrogenated vegetable oil + sugar filled Yankee Doodle (Drake’s cake) or the pungent artificial flavoring of a Butterscotch Krimpet (Tastykake). Well, those were staples in our fridge, along with any number of Entenmann’s pastries.

Summer after my first year in college usually found me hanging out with my high school buddy, Liz. Life was good! Especially when we stumbled into the kitchen on a humid Jersey eve after my folks had hosted a party. There was an extra cornucopia of sweets and in somewhat of an altered state, we eagerly dove into the riches but with a discriminating perspective: we rated each of the delights on a Shop Rite memo pad.

In the morning, when my folks discovered the list, they couldn’t stop laughing and posted it to their bulletin board, where it lived for decades. They still tell the story and we all get a good chuckle about it.

When I found a copy of the treasured list in a pile of old memorabilia yesterday, I was compelled to preserve it once again, but with a little more embellishment. So now it lives on Suzine!